Cavenham is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England, 10 kilometres (6 mi) northwest of Bury St Edmunds. It is in the local government district of West Suffolk, and the electoral ward of Manor.[1] At the 2021 UK census, Cavenham Parish had a population of 141.[2] In the 1870s it had a population of 229.[3]

Cavenham
St Andrew's Church, Cavenham
Cavenham is located in Suffolk
Cavenham
Cavenham
Location within Suffolk
Population136 (2011 census)
OS grid referenceTL7669
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townBury St Edmonds
Postcode districtIP28
PoliceSuffolk
FireSuffolk
AmbulanceEast of England
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Suffolk
52°17′48″N 0°35′02″E / 52.2968°N 00.5839°E / 52.2968; 00.5839

The parish includes Cavenham Heath, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) with a sand and gravel quarry close to it[4] and is the location of the Black Ditches, an Anglo-Saxon boundary ditch which is believed to be the most easterly of a series of early Anglo-Saxon defensive earthworks built across the Icknield Way. Part of this also forms an SSSI to the south-east of the village.

Toponymy

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Toponymists Keith Briggs and Kelly Kilpatrick say Cavenham means a man called Cafa once owned a homestead here. They provide a number of different spellings following Domesday Book before it became stabilised as Cavenham. They also say Cafan has the genitive suffix meaning 'of Cafa'.[5]: 31  The surname of canham originates from the name cavenham, all persons with the surname canham have their origins here at Cavenham

Notable residents

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  • Adolphe Goldschmidt (1838-1918), German businessman and art collector, created an estate of 2,500 acres at Cavenham in the late 19th century.[6]

References

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  1. ^ "Ward: Manor" (PDF). Forest Heath District Council. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
  2. ^ "Cavenham CP". Neighbourhood Statistics. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
  3. ^ "Cavenham Through Time". Retrieved 21 January 2011.
  4. ^ "Planning Applications – R03/214". Suffolk County Council. 4 November 2003. Archived from the original on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
  5. ^ Briggs, Keith; Kilpatrick, Kelly (2016). A dictionary of Suffolk place-names. Nottingham: English Place-Name Society. ISBN 978-0904889918.
  6. ^ Fallon. I (1991). Billionaire. The Life & Times of Sir James Goldsmith. Hutchinson. p. 15. ISBN 0-09-174380-X.